I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. I dispense paz (peace) in the form of computer education classes. And I blog about it.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

a week of ups & downs

“We’re going to see a movie, do you want to come?”“What movie? Where’s it playing?”“Twilight… it’s at the White People Mall.”“The White People Mall?”“You know… it’s on Avenida Churchill… uh, hey, what’s the actual name of the White People Mall?”“The Acropolis Center, I think?”

I think I’ve blogged about the White People Mall before, but it’s still a trippy place. But it was the only place in the capital showing Twilight, so a group of us went there last weekend. (You might recall that I already saw Twilight last week, and that I don’t even especially like Twilight, but this second viewing was with a group of more Mystery Science Theatre-esque friends, and thus was extremely enjoyable.) We also went out to TGI Friday’s to celebrate a friend’s birthday. TGI Friday’s in the DR is considered to be much more classy than it is in the US, though the food is just as mediocre as at home.

The rest of the weekend was basically devoted to hanging around the Peace Corps office and partaking in the free Internet and laundry. Glorious.

The rest of the week I:

Suffered from la gripe (aka a cold)

Slept a lot

Read all the Twilight books

Composed text message haikus regarding the Twilight books (sample: Done with this garbage/Twilight is the new Secret/And both should be burned)

Taught my English class how to tell time in English

Realized the kids didn’t really know how to tell time in Spanish either and taught them how to read a clock

Had a committee meeting at the other computer center in town, which was fairly productive and did not end with me in tears (unlike previous committee meetings at the school)

Had the first meeting of my youth computer club with an attendance of 4—even though it was raining!!

Went to visit a nearby town that is potentially getting a Peace Corps volunteer

Explained to a disappointed committee that I was not the town’s new volunteer, I was only there for one night, and they were just going to have to wait a few months to get their actual volunteer

Took too much Sudafed and had some out-of-body experiences but passed it off to the potential host family like I just didn’t speak Spanish that well